Short and fast. The updates will be coming more quickly now and we're fully in the present timeline. Enjoy the briefly linear part of the story while it lasts!

Cheers,

Dixie Lou

Part IV

Chapter 8

A field, a fire, a crowd. Black cloaks and a blood orange sky filled with crows. All at once seven heads turn in my direction, seven sets of red eyes focus on me.

I carry Edward's body toward them, though I know he should be too heavy for me to lift. He's wrapped in a tattered white shroud.

I whisper to his corpse, "Look to thyself, take care of thyself, for nobody cares for thee."

As I walk part of the shroud falls away to reveal a frozen green eye. Through still lips Edward whispers back, "Look to thyself or not to thyself, the selfsame thing will be."

Seven mouths, obscured by heavy shadow, open and close as one, "And what rough beast?" they ask and do not ask, they say and do not say, pointing at me, "Its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

And all the crows in all the trees are murmuring, "Bella, Bella, Bella…"

My vision slowly came back to me and I could see blurred lights and shapes. Everything was warm and smoky and I could hear birds chirping in the distance. Soft blankets were wrapped around me and somewhere a person was snoring lightly. Wasn't I supposed to be dead? Wasn't I supposed to be drowning in the river? I sat up on my elbows with a moan and discovered my head was pounding.

A warm, soft hand gently pressed me back down to the blankets, "Shhhh," a woman said. "Mom?" I mumbled, confused about what was happening. "Relax, you're safe now," the woman cooed, "Nothing bad is going to happen. Shhhh." I could feel a damp washcloth mop across my forehead followed by more soft pleas to stay lying down. From somewhere the snoring continued. My vision refocused gradually as my headache subsided. I was in some kind of rural, single room cabin and though it was daytime a fire was burning brightly in one corner. The woman I recognized as Sue Clearwater. She was emptying a basin of water into a sink, her back to me. Why was she here? Last time we met she tried to claw my eyes out. Where was I?

As my sight returned I found the source of the snoring. Jacob was slumped in a chair opposite my bed, sleeping, and my backpack was on the floor beside him. I quickly shot up, "What's he doing here!?" Sue ran to me and tried to push me back down, restraining me as best she could. "Now Honey, calm down. He's been here all night, worried sick about you. Just relax, it's okay!" Jacob woke with a start and jumped out of his chair. Involuntarily I shrunk back into the bed, my body trembling. After all I've been through and against my better judgment, I had learned to fear Jacob Black.

"It's okay, Sue. Bella won't try anything. Will you Bella?" I nodded meekly and he nodded for Sue to release me. She took one last maternal look at me and exited the cabin, leaving us alone. "There now," Jacob said as he went back to his chair, "isn't that better? Now we can talk like civilized people."

"I have nothing to say to you!" I shouted, shaking to my core. I tried a lunge for the fireplace poker, but I stopped short when a bullet exploded a vase of flowers right next to my face. I cried out as porcelain shrapnel assaulted my exposed skin. "Ha, don't you move Bella Swan, or I'll shoot that demon right out of your belly." I turned toward him and he had my handgun aimed at my stomach. "Charlie know you're carrying a gun around? Bet he's all kinds of pissed at you right now. Shooting guns and getting pregnant *tisk* you certainly have gone off the deep end, Bells."

"Don't call me that," I raked out my words through clenched teeth, "You don't get to use that name anymore."

"You're not calling the shots anymore Bells," Jacob pointed the gun at my head to punctuate his point, "Now sit down on that damn bed before I do something we'll both regret." I sat, tense and ready to fight my way out of this cabin if I had to. "Now, we're missing someone. Edward! Come on, old buddy, why don't you come out to play?" Jacob unzipped my backpack and pulled Edward's head out by the hair. Edward glared murderously at Jacob and hissed a few times like a cornered cat. "Nasty little thing, don't you think?" Jacob commented to me as he placed Edward on a table near the fire. Too near, it seemed, for comfort. "Don't get any ideas, either of you," Jacob pointed the gun at Edward, and then me, "or I'll kick his head into the fire faster than you can say 'Sparkles'." Edward looked at me, his rage melting, and I knew what I had to do. The answer was there, in his sad, sick eyes. I had prepared myself for this moment, but now I had no idea if I had it in me to harm Jacob. But before I could act, a sharp burst of pain shot through me as the baby started to violently kick. I gasped and held my stomach in agony.

"You're running low on time, Bella," Jacob moved a little closer to me and looked concerned, "Billy told me that thing will kill you when it's born. Take a long look at your precious vampire," he pushed my head so I had to look at Edward, "Now do you see? Do you understand what your life will be worth when everything that makes you human is gone?" His voice was a mixture of hurt pride and distaste, but it was hard to mistake the buried sorrow. He went over to the chair opposite the bed and slumped down in it. "All this," he sighed, "and you'll still die anyway. What a waste." Jacob shook his head, seemingly trying to shake away an unwanted thought and then smiled derisively at Edward, "Hope you're ready to be a single dad, Eddy." When Edward said nothing Jacob burst into laughter at his own joke.

"Please, Jacob," I gasped between waves of pain, "She's hungry, I need to eat. Hand me my bag." Jacob threw the bag at my feet, assuming I'd take out a granola bar or a piece of fruit. I saw the shock register on his face as I pulled out a hospital bag of blood. "Of course," he muttered, putting his head in his hands. Edward watched, enthralled, as I opened the bag and began to suck. Jacob grimaced and stood up, "I always knew you'd destroy her," he snarled at Edward before he stormed out of the cabin, slamming and locking the door securely behind him.